Lankan authorities get tough with NGOs on organising workshops, issuing media statements

Three days after an unknown group forced a city hotel from allowing the annual general meeting of Transparency International (TI) Sri Lanka to be held, the Ministry of Defence clamped down on non-governmental organisations ordering them to ‘stick’ to their mandate.

In a circular dated July 1 to all NGOs operating under the purview of the National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organisations under the Defence Ministry, the Secretariat said NGOs were “acting beyond their mandate”.

“It has been revealed that certain NGOs conduct press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases which is beyond their mandate. We reiterate that all NGOs should prevent from such unauthorized activities with immediate effect,” said D.M.S. Dissanayake, the Secretariat’s Director/Registrar in the circular

he circular which appeared to be circulated this week and reported in local media on Monday, drew the condemnation of many rights groups and activists.

The circular came after TI, registered in Sri Lanka as a ‘Guarantee company’ and not as an NGO, was ‘barred’ from holding its AGM at Global Towers Hotel in Wellawatte on Friday, June 28. The previous day, the hotel management had been warned by unknown parties not to allow the meeting to be held there, forcing the hotel to ask TI officials to move it elsewhere.In a last-minute change, TI officials had to hurriedly convene the meeting at one of the function rooms of the BMICH and call all its office bearers and members on the change of venue. Despite the last minute arrangement, most of the members turned up at the meeting where officials explained the recent crisis facing the organization but saying they were determined to move forward ‘because TI has done nothing wrong and has worked in accordance with the laws of the country’.

This was the fourth successful effort by unknown forces, believed to be backed by an unseen government hand, where a TI event has been disrupted. Earlier the organization was prevented from conducting a workshop for Tamil-language journalists in the northeast. A hotel in northeast Sri Lanka was the venue of the workshop but hotel officials were compelled to ask the organisers to move it to another venue after receiving threatening calls. The workshop moved to Negombo, receiving the same fate and just hours after workshop participants checked into a Colombo hotel, the same threat was delivered over the phone, forcing the cancellation of the event.

In a statement, the Lawyers Collective, Colombo, condemned the new circular from the NGO Secretariat saying, “defence authorities are going beyond their mandate”.

The group said the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not enjoy any specific legal authority under any statute whatsoever to control freedom of speech and association of citizens, who act collectively through civil society organisations.

“Analysis of the communication shows that the Defence authorities appear to believe that the civil society organisations do not have any right to conduct ‘press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases’. All governments that respect democratic values respect the rights of citizens to engage in such lawful activities. Only authoritarian regimes prevent such democratic engagements. If the Government of Sri Lanka is serious in preserving the democratic character of the country, it must respect its own Constitutional freedoms such as Freedom of Expression and Association,” the statement issued by the Convenor of the Collective, J.C. Weliamuna said. The latter is also Chairman of TI Sri Lanka.

Defence Ministry officials defended the circular saying it was a reiteration of the rules of conduct for NGOs and should not be perceived as a warning.

Ever since the civil conflict ended in May 2009, the authorities have been grappling with local and international NGOs dealing with peace and conflict work, human rights and humanitarian work. Separately, local NGOs have had to downsize their operations due to funding cuts brought about by the end of the conflict and Sri Lanka being upgraded to a middle-income country which reduces access to funds. Many village-level CBOs (community-based organisations) have closed.